Formula One's governing body will take no action against championship leader Nico Rosberg despite Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton accusing him of a deliberate collision at the Belgian Grand Prix on Sunday.
"The FIA will not intervene in this issue," said a spokesman for the governing International Automobile Federation (FIA). He said it would require a 'new element' for stewards to open an investigation once the results had been declared official and discounted Hamilton's post-race comments.
“A comment alleged to have been made in an internal briefing and later denied by the team itself does not constitute such a ‘new element’,” added the spokesman. Hamilton said in Spa that Rosberg had admitted hitting him on the second lap during a failed overtaking manoeuvre to ‘prove a point’.
The impact left Hamilton with a puncture that damaged his car and led to his eventual retirement.
Rosberg damaged his car’s front wing but finished second and extended his overall championship lead over Hamilton to 29 points. Stewards took no action during the race and Rosberg offered a different version of events to Hamilton, saying it was merely a racing incident.
Hamilton has promised he will not be seeking revenge vowed to keep it clean in his bid to claw back the deficit.
“The weekend was damaging,” said Hamilton. “I don’t know how I’m going to get back those 29 points, but what I do know is I’ve a great group of people behind me. The poor guys on my side of the garage have had quite a lot of bad races.
“But I know with their support and that of the fans, the fact we’ve a great car, a great team and we should be finishing one-two, I really hope I can bring them some good results moving forwards.
“Whatever the case I will always put the team first and I won’t take anything into my own hands.”
Asked whether he could trust Rosberg should they be wheel to wheel at the next race in Italy, Hamilton said: “I’ll have to make sure we’re not wheel to wheel.”